Yoshinori Mizutani and his inspirational graphic photographs

“One rainy day, I looked down on an intersection from a vantage point in a high rise – umbrelllas looked like flowers that had bloomed in a city,”

says the Japanese photographer.

Our studio today is getting inspired by the stunning pictures of Yoshinori Mizutani.

Photographing from above, the greyness we normally associate with rainy days is removed and instead we have brightly coloured scenes.

“Zebra crossings, umbrellas and vehicles were so beautiful and strange at the same time and it looked as if they had been placed there as part of a grand visual design within the city,” says Mizutani. “The photographs were taken from a high rise with the help of ultra-telephoto zoom lenses. It was difficult to find a perfect location to shoot from. I used Google Maps – finding a right location took as long as the shooting itself.”

“I use Photoshop in the post-production, which is a key part of my work,” he says, “but I’ll never merge one photo to the other. I’d only adjust brightness, contrast and saturation to get the kind of an image I’m after. For instance, I photographed with a strobe light when working on Tokyo Parrots. I first didn’t use a strobe, but couldn’t capture parakeets clearly in this manner and eventually came to use a strobe light as a solution… This is the beauty of photography. You take photos every day and learn or get inspired from the photos you have taken.”

Alongside these personal series, Mizutani has also shot for brands including Panasonic and Issey Miyake. He will be showing his work in his first UK exhibition at the Webber Gallery Space in London from May 20-June 21, during Photo London.